Cindy Blackman had been playing drums for seven years when, at age 15, she first heard the phenomenal drumming of Tony Williams on a couple of Miles Davis albums recorded a decade earlier, when Williams himself was a teenager. The experience changed her life.
"I was just freaked out by Tony and loved him from that day forward," says Blackman, now 49, by phone from her home in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Several months later, Blackman attended a drum clinic given by Williams at a music store in Wethersfield, Conn. "I went and I was floored," she recalls. "That was the most incredible thing that I had ever seen in my entire life. I knew right away that was the direction I had to go for sound, for technique, for concept, for just general attitude behind the kit. I was so taken by everything that he played. He took questions, and I halfway raised my hand to ask a question, but no words came out. I couldn't even say anything to him."
The red-headed drummer later studied in Boston with Alan Dawson, who had earlier been Williams' mentor. "I wanted to study with Alan because his reputation as a teacher was legendary, but I also studied with Alan because I was chasing Tony's path." [Read More]